Five Silly Bands

A few months ago in the spring of 2010, I realized something strange happened among the school aged children. That is, all of a sudden, all kids, no matter boys or girls, became very interested in one thing, and one thing only, something that is called “Silly bands”. Almost every kids we met wore lots of colorful silly bands, which are rubber bands made into different shapes, animals, ships, traffic signs, stars, you named it, on their wrist. They bragged about them, traded them among themselves and asked parents for even more. Silly bands quickly became the common XXX among them.

One night, after I got home, Andrew who lost his silly bands during days’ trading or lack of care, told me calmly that he agreed to be Daniel’s servant for seven days in exchange for 5 silly bands. “What? Seven days? Sweetie, that’s a long time of being a servant!” I said. “Plus, what do you need to do of being a servant?” I asked. “Oh, Andrew needs to do whatever I asked him to do”, Daniel said with a smile that was hard to hide.

“Like what?” I asked Daniel.

 “Well, like if I want to read any books before sleeping, Andrew can’t fight with me, he needs to give the book to me.” Daniel said.

“What else?” I asked.

“I don’t know”, Daniel said and shrugged. “But mommy, Maxwell’s mom asked Maxwell to wipe his brothers poop. But Maxwell is so smart that he always told his mom that he is allergic to his brother’s poop.”

Realizing what Daniel was really up to, I stared at him and said firmly, “Daniel, you DON’T DO THAT!!”

Daniel turned around and said to Andrew, “Andrew, you don’t need to wipe my poop.” After he paused for a moment, he added, “Unless I forget about it…”

In a moment, I saw Andrew was giving Daniel a hand massage, a special treat that I sometimes offered while Daniel is lying comfortably on the couch. Daniel smiled and sighed to me, “Mommy, five silly bands!!”